The Interview – Kieran Dixon

Very few players leave a club and come back to that very same club with the fans still very much on their side. Broncos winger, Kieran Dixon, has done just that and is now firmly back as a fan favourite.

With it being Father’s Day today we caught up with Kieran to ask how it was being a Dad whilst still playing Championship Rugby league. Kieran, with it being Father’s day today what does it mean to you to be a dad?
It’s indescribable really. My daughter changed my life, to be honest in the fact that I had to grow up really quickly. I was quite young when she came along but I was in a good place in my career at the time. I sat down with my Mum and had a long talk and she reassured me that everything would be fine. I took her word for it and as always Mum was right as I cannot believe how my little one has changed me as a person.

People always say that having a child will change your life but you do not realize until you have actually had one. How much has it changed your lifestyle?
Obviously, people do say how much things will change and I guess you do brush it off to a certain extent until it does actually happen to you. Junior Roqica was here last year and I tried to explain to him, before his child was born, what the feeling was like but I said the emotion of having another person takes over. I didn’t think I would be emotional but you hear the baby cry for the first time and that was it for me. I felt like I had been hit in the face with a ball. I even feel emotional now as everything about her makes me smile.

Your daughter has been to games here so how does that make you feel knowing you have someone looking up to you as she does?
It’s still a weird feeling now seeing her in the stands thinking that’s my baby. I always heard my Mum saying it and telling I would always be her baby and I get that now. My daughter, whether she likes it or not, will always be my baby and the person whose eyes I can look into knowing she will just make me melt!.

This is your second season back in London now after your spell at Hull KR. How does it feel to be back here with people like Will Lovell and Michael Channing?
It’s great to be back. Moving away for two years was a big shock, to be honest. It was the step in my career that I felt I had to take. London had been through some tough times what with relegation etc. and I didn’t make the cut. I had made SuperLeague with the club and felt that I needed to stay at that level. It was a massive decision as London had given me everything. Without the help and training that the guys here gave me it would have been impossible to be the player, I have become. I always faced adversity due to my size but I like to think I have proved a lot of people wrong as my inspiration, Jason Robinson, did in his career too.

The so-called “Three Musketeers” from your time before are back together, as I said, with you, Will and Michael having lived together before. What was that like?
It’s hard to describe but being 5 teenage boys living in a huge house in Kingston with just your phone bill and Car insurance to pay out for. We were living the student life it was crazy. I moved out of home at 17 years old and had to learn to fend for myself. I had never even cooked for myself before that so it was all new and exciting back then. Having Will and Channers here now is great for me as we all know how each other plays having been together for so long.

What was the long-term goal at that age?
I always got knockbacks to be fair. Even the Broncos turned me down at a trial when I was 16 due to my size. I finally made it in at a push as I was number 22 in a 20 man squad and was told I could train but wouldn’t play due to my size. Hearing that from a professional outfit is hard to take but it could have gone two ways and I chose the one where I would prove everyone wrong and fight. As a kid I just wanted to pull on an England shirt whether that was at Bowls, Cricket or any sport and I am lucky enough to have, at home, two England Knights shirts with my number on the back and no one can take that away from me and its something I can show my daughter when she grows up.

You are clearly a fans favourite here and they are glad you are back. What would you say to the fans who have been there through both spells at the club?
The fans make the club for me and there have been those die hards that have been here through thick and thin. No matter where you are with this team you will always see the familiar faces, hear the drum and the horn going. It doesn’t matter how big the other sides fan base is you will always hear the London crowd. It was a fantastic feeling to be welcomed back by the fans and especially Maureen Gates, my personal sponsor, who was my sponsor in my first spell here too. For someone like her to have so much faith in me as a player means so much. It’s their hard earned money going into me and all I can say is thank you for the care and support that they have shown me throughout the years.